Meghalaya HC gives municipal board 3 weeks to identify, relocate Laitumkhrah vendors
The civic body has also been directed to ensure that no new vendor is allowed to do business in the area, & consider all pending applications for grant of vending licences within eight weeks.
A file image of vendors protesting against the eviction drive at Police Bazaar, Shillong. (AT Photo)
Shillong, Aug 31: The Meghalaya High Court has directed the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) to identify vendors and street hawkers based at Laitumkhrah in the State capital so that they can be relocated, like those who were operating in Police Bazaar.
Meanwhile, the SMB, along with the district administration, will also identify a suitable place for relocation of licensed vendors.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice IG Mukerji and Justice W Diengdoh gave this direction to the SMB on the basis of a PIL. The High Court bench directed the SMB to make a thorough survey of the Laitumkhrah area and make an inventory of all the street vendors operating there with full details within three weeks.
The civic body has also been directed to ensure that no new vendor is allowed to do business in the area, and consider all pending applications for grant of vending licences within eight weeks.
Earlier, in response to the High Court’s directive to the SMB to inspect and survey the number of vendors and street hawkers in the Laitumkhrah area, the civic body submitted a report, stating that a large number of hawkers operate there without any certificate of vending or vending licence.
The SMB has said there are 122 vendors and street hawkers, out of whom only 22 fulfil the provisions of the scheme for relocation. As many as 48 more vendors have identified themselves as street vendors. This takes the total number of street vendors operating in the Laitumkhrah without licence to 170, according to the SMB report.
By
Staff Correspondent